Health and Safety Report 2019

HEALTH & SAFETY REPORT 2019

5.7 2019 Key Activities

Hydrocarbon Release Prevention In response to the HSE’s concern about major hydrocarbon releases occurring in the North Sea, OGUK has been working with its members, the regulator, Step Change in Safety and the Maximising Economic Recover Asset Integrity Task Group (MER-AITG) to develop a robust release prevention plan. Shaped by the outputs of an industry HCR prevention workshop run by OGUK in April 2019 and combining the work streams managed by SCiS and the MER-AITG, the graphic below provides an overview of the initiatives that are either underway (shown in bold) or under consideration (in grey).

People

Process

Plant

• Leadership • Competence

• Simple • Risk based • Relevant

• Integrity • Efficiency • Maintained • Risk based

• Engaged • Focused

• Principles of Process Safety Leadership • MAH Awareness • Webinars • Ops/OIM Forum • HCR Peer Review

• Alerts, Moments & HVL • Good Practice Stories • Assurance etal TFG • Human Factors • Learning from outside our industry • Plant Reinstatement • MoC

• Covered in the MER AI Road Map

The three groups will continue working together to ensure the efficacy of this high-level plan, engage with the regulator, operators and with offshore leadership in particular, and will provide industry with updates on whether the interventions are having an impact on reducing HCRs. The development of a set of Principles of Process Safety Leadership for offshore oil and gas, building on experience gained outside the industry, is of note. The principles include clear and positive process safety leadership; senior leadership involvement in and understanding of managing major hazards; active engagement with the workforce; robust and regular auditing of major accident hazard barriers and sharing good practice and performance information across industry. Occupational Exposure to Benzene In early 2018, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) recommended a reduction in occupational exposure levels (OEL) for benzene from 1 part per million (ppm) to 0.05 ppm. OGUK has been monitoring the progress of the proposal through the trilogue process, and is preparing to develop a common industry approach to meeting a new, lower standard in collaboration with other industry bodies and regulators.

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